Kindergarten Nomads

Last weekend, some "bad guys", as the kindergarten refers to these people, (I have a few other names.) broke into the kids' school. As a part of their vandalization, they set a fire in the kindergarten area. The school was able to get in a restoration team as early as Sunday, but the kindergarteners were displaced all week. Holland has wandered from art room to library to cafeteria to the "toy room" (none of us knows exactly what room that is.)

We thought things might go back to normal next week, but no such luck. With the fumes, partially from a plastic table the vandals tried to burn, it looks like they are going to remain nomads 2-3 more weeks. I went up to the school today to pick up some of the stuff they were able to salvage, so I could clean it and then return it. They have the kindergarten area pretty much sealed off. It reminded me of that scene in ET where everything is covered in plastic and sealed off. Boy, that Drew Barrymore could scream...oh wait, where was I?...

Also, the rest of that side of the school is hot, uncomfortably so. I talked with Holland's teacher, Mrs S. and she looked a bit frazzled. She said the teachers felt like bag ladies as they rotate from room to room. She said they have had to throw away a lot of stuff. She had just given them all new markers right after Christmas. The way she said it made me want to cry....over markers, new ones, that still have the sharp point you know, before the kid smushes it to a pulp trying to color something with all their might until the paper just gives way under the ink. Yeah, markers.

(sniff, sniff, wipe a tear)

My hopes at this point are: the kids and teachers will get in a more comfortable routine, the restoration won't take as long as they think it will, and the United States will incorporate caning as appropriate punishment for vandals/arsonists. Singapore style.